Monday, July 23, 2012

July Secret Recipe Club: Dulce de Leche Brownies from The Canela Kitchen

Geez, this year is going by so very quickly...it's hard to believe that it's time for another Secret Recipe Club Monday reveal! Each month, we're assigned a blog to visit and feature a recipe from. On reveal day, we share the recipe...and we find out who had our blog as well. For July, I was given a fabulous blog called The Canela Kitchen. Gloria lives in Chile and posts her fabulous recipes in both English and Spanish. One of the best things about SRC is learning more about fellow food bloggers and discovering some tasty recipes. This month was no exception...Gloria's blog focuses mainly on baking, and she has some really fantastic recipes. Make sure to stop by and say hello!

After reading through her site and drooling over all the delicious goodies she makes, I decided to try my hand at a fairly simple dulce de leche brownie recipe. I love brownies...but I rarely make them from scratch. Add in some sweet dulce de leche, and you're talking my language! Homemade brownies take only a few minutes longer than a box mix to whip up, but the results are so worth it. These brownies came together in no time using mostly basic pantry ingredients, and they were richly sweet! If you've never heard of dulce de leche, it means "sweet milk" in Spanish...it tastes quite a bit like caramel, only not as sticky. The word cajeta can be used interchangeably with dulce de leche...so look for that name as well. I found this brand of dulce de leche on the same aisle as the evaporated and condensed milk.

Dulce de Leche Brownies

from The Canela Kitchen

Step 1: Preheat oven to 350, and line a 9x9 baking pan with parchment or foil. Set the pan aside while you prepare the brownies. Add 1 stick of butter to a saucepan over medium heat. When melted, add 6 ounces bittersweet chocolate and stir well...until the chocolate has melted into the butter.

Step 2: Pour the chocolate-butter mixture into a large bowl. Whisk in 1/4 cup cocoa powder. Then add 3 eggs, one at a time. Finally, add: 1 tsp. vanilla, 1 cup sugar, and 1 cup flour. Stir well to combine -- the batter will be thick.

Step 3: Spread half of the brownie batter into the prepared pan. Spoon nine dollops of dulce de leche on to top of the brownie batter and swirl. Then, spread the other half of the brownie batter on top. Top with more dollops of the dulce de leche, but DON'T swirl this time.

Step 4: Bake the brownies for 35-40 minutes, until they are cooked through. I turned the pan around halfway through the baking time to ensure even baking. Let the brownies cool completely before baking -- about two hours if you can stand the wait!

Make sure to cut these brownies pretty small...you should get a dozen brownies from your pan. These brownies are rich and delish...the texture is somewhere between cake-y and fudgy. And that dulce de leche? It's pretty much heaven when you bite into the brownies and hit one of these rich pockets of sweet goodness! My 11-year-old niece Lili is visiting for a few days, and she helped me make these brownies. Let me tell ya, she's about the only thing sweeter than dulce de leche!!

I'm finally catching up with my commenting, and I have certainly missed a few of your recent posts, only to check on your latest sinfully delicious brownies with the dulce de Leche. Just drooling, and wanting so bad to even have a tiny peace right now~

Absolutely the best brownies and most creative recipe. You did an amazing job on the brownies, Wendy. Yumm!